I've personally found most networking events to be terrible when it comes to making meaningful connections.<p>I've found it's much more effective to just email someone you're interested in connecting with, introduce yourself, and invite them meet up sometime for a coffee (or beer, depending on the time of day).<p>If they say yes, it's because they are also interested in what you're doing, and this acts as a quality filter to ensure you're both moderately aligned in your interests and not wasting each other's time. Plus, the one-on-one setting lends itself to more interesting and personal conversations, which tends to have the friend-building effect the original author appeals to.<p>Networking doesn't come naturally to most people, but being friendly and personable usually does. I find that combining the two removes some of the awkwardness, and makes your efforts that much more effective.
I prefer my method of "meetup golf", it's a little different than this one.<p>In my version of 'meetup golf' you basically go play golf, meet people who enjoy golf while doing so, ask them what they do for work, and 1/2 the time they are in tech or some form of tech (YMMV depending on where you live & play golf). At the end of the round you shake their hand and say "It was nice meeting you. Hey, listen, if you ever want to play golf in the future or need anything at all feel free to contact me" -- hand them your business card, 9 times out of 10 they will connect on linkedin or shoot an email thereafter.<p>You now have more in common with them than just your profession, you also share a hobby. Also consider there is a 19th hole in golf. This is a far better way to meet, befriend, and build a network that holds some weight.
One thing I've wondered -- rather than spending so much effort building an extensive network, why not build a very small network of solid connections... with people who have lots of connections?<p>In any industry there are those individuals who seem to "know everyone," have been next to many industry-shifting moments one way or another, have worked at a half-dozen of the most important companies, etc etc. It's clear that a large part of their time is spent networking (after all, it's a hard job), and a large part of their value is as a connector. As an added bonus, because they're a connector and value having lots of connections, they should be open to the idea of getting to know you and forming another connection.<p>Why not just make connections with 6,7,8 of those people and then be done? You'd be one hop away to almost everyone in your industry with far less effort than actually getting to know everyone in your industry. Anyway, just theorizing at a more efficient way of networking. Agreed on the article's premises that a real network is with people you know as human beings.
Lee - I love this article. I think everybody should read it just to get the idea that this whole 'networking' thing can get pretty lame at times.<p>I like the way you explain it - but basically, just, "go make friends" is the advice, right? In case you're interested in the writings of someone with a similar point of view, I wrote a similar post, slightly rantier, a year or so ago: <a href="http://danielhough.co.uk/blog/human-business-card-jar/" rel="nofollow">http://danielhough.co.uk/blog/human-business-card-jar/</a>
I agree with the author's criticism of LinkedIn. My biggest problem with the service is its default placeholder text for connection requests ("David Smith would like to connect with you...").<p>To me this takes all of the fun and excitement out of networking, not to mention the clarity. When I network with people face-to-face, I always get a sense of how they may want to work with me in the future. E.g. Maybe they're a designer; I'm a programmer; we could collaborate on X kind of project.<p>LinkedIn's placeholder text makes connections seem generic and less useful. Today I received five networking requests, but, unlike with real-life networking, I have no clear idea of why the people are reaching out to me.
I was about to drop 600 quid on a membership to a local networking group (BNI).<p>This has reminded me that networking is primarily a peer group thing, and otherwise it's, well, marketing<p>So, coffee mornings I guess
Excellent article. I'm certainly not an expert networker myself, but I would agree that being friendly with your business associates is very important to future business. It doesn't mean you necessarily need to hang out with them - even just chatting a little bit about personal stuff once in a while helps to oil the wheels of business. People are human after all, and most people prefer doing business with people they like.